1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to organophotoreceptors suitable for use in electrophotography and, more specifically, to flexible organophotoreceptors having novel charge transport materials. The generic class of charge transport materials are fluorenone hydrazones having a) at least two fluorenone alkylsulfonylphenylhydrazone groups, b) at least two fluorenone pyrrolylhydrazone groups, c) at least two fluorenone benzotriazolylhydrazone groups, d) at least two fluorenone sulfolanylhydrazone groups, e) at least two fluorenone pyrazolylhydrazone groups, f) at least two fluorenone naphthylhydrazone groups, g) at least two fluorenone tetrazolylhydrazone groups, h) at least two fluorenone stilbenylhydrazone groups, and i) at least two fluorenone (9H-fluoren-9-ylidene)benzylhydrazone groups.
2. Background of the Art
In electrophotography, an organophotoreceptor in the form of a plate, a flexible belt, a disk, a rigid drum, or a sheet around a rigid or compliant drum having an electrically insulating photoconductive element on an electrically conductive substrate is imaged by first uniformly electrostatically charging the surface of the photoconductive layer, and then exposing the charged surface to a pattern of light. The light exposure selectively dissipates the charge in the illuminated areas, thereby forming a pattern of charged and uncharged areas (referred to as latent image). A liquid or solid toner is then provided in the vicinity of the latent image, and the toner particles deposit in either the charged or uncharged areas to create a toned image on the surface of the photoconductive layer. The resulting visible toner image can be transferred to a suitable receiving surface such as paper, or the photoconductive layer can operate as a permanent receptor for the image. The imaging process can be repeated many times.
Both single layer and multilayer photoconductive elements have been used. In the single layer embodiment, a charge transport material and charge generating material are combined with a polymeric binder and then deposited on an electrically conductive substrate. In the multilayer embodiment, the charge transport material and charge generating material are in the form of separate layers, each of which can optionally be combined with a polymeric binder and deposited on the electrically conductive substrate. Two arrangements are possible. In one arrangement (the “dual layer” arrangement), the charge generating layer is deposited on the electrically conductive substrate and the charge transport layer is deposited on top of the charge generating layer. In an alternate arrangement (the “inverted dual layer” arrangement), the order of the charge transport layer and charge generating layer is reversed.
In both the single layer and multilayer photoconductive elements, the purpose of the charge generating material is to generate charge carriers (i.e., holes or electrons) upon exposure to light. The purpose of the charge transport material is to accept these charge carriers and transport them through the charge transport layer in order to discharge a surface charge on the photoconductive element. The charge transport material can be a charge transport compound, an electron transport compound, or a combination of both. When a charge transport compound is used, the charge transport compound accepts the hole carriers and transports them through the layer containing the charge transport compound. When an electron transport compound is used, the electron transport compound accepts the electron carriers and transports them through the layer containing the electron transport compound.
To produce high quality images, it is desirable to maximize the amount of charge which the charge transport material, such as electron transport compound, can accept (indicated by a parameter known as the acceptance voltage or “Vacc”), and to minimize retention of that charge upon discharge (indicated by a parameter known as the discharge voltage or “Vdis”).
There are many charge transport materials available for electrophotography. The most common charge transport materials are pyrazoline derivatives, fluorene derivatives, oxadiazole derivatives, stilbene derivatives, hydrazone derivatives, carbazole hydrazone derivatives, triphenylamine derivatives, julolidine hydrazone derivatives, polyvinyl carbazole, polyvinyl pyrene, or polyacenaphthylene. However, each of the above charge transport materials suffers some disadvantages. There is always a need for novel charge transport materials to meet the various requirements of electrophotography applications.